[android] Android update activity UI from service

I have a service which is checking for new task all the time. If there is new task, I want to refresh the activity UI to show that info. I did find https://github.com/commonsguy/cw-andtutorials/tree/master/18-LocalService/ this example. Is that a good approch ? Any other examples?

Thanks.

for me the simplest solution was to send a broadcast, in the activity oncreate i registered and defined the broadcast like this (updateUIReciver is defined as a class instance) :

 IntentFilter filter = new IntentFilter();

 filter.addAction("com.hello.action"); 

 updateUIReciver = new BroadcastReceiver() {

            @Override
            public void onReceive(Context context, Intent intent) {
                //UI update here

            }
        };
 registerReceiver(updateUIReciver,filter);

And from the service you send the intent like this:

Intent local = new Intent();

local.setAction("com.hello.action");

this.sendBroadcast(local);

don't forget to unregister the recover in the activity on destroy :

unregisterReceiver(updateUIReciver);

I would use a bound service to do that and communicate with it by implementing a listener in my activity. So if your app implements myServiceListener, you can register it as a listener in your service after you have bound with it, call listener.onUpdateUI from your bound service and update your UI in there!

Callback from service to activity to update UI.
ResultReceiver receiver = new ResultReceiver(new Handler()) {
    protected void onReceiveResult(int resultCode, Bundle resultData) {
        //process results or update UI
    }
}

Intent instructionServiceIntent = new Intent(context, InstructionService.class);
instructionServiceIntent.putExtra("receiver", receiver);
context.startService(instructionServiceIntent);

My solution might not be the cleanest but it should work with no problems. The logic is simply to create a static variable to store your data on the Service and update your view each second on your Activity.

Let's say that you have a String on your Service that you want to send it to a TextView on your Activity. It should look like this

Your Service:

public class TestService extends Service {
    public static String myString = "";
    // Do some stuff with myString

Your Activty:

public class TestActivity extends Activity {
    TextView tv;
    @Override
    protected void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
        super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
        tv = new TextView(this);
        setContentView(tv);
        update();
        Thread t = new Thread() {
            @Override
            public void run() {
                try {
                    while (!isInterrupted()) {
                        Thread.sleep(1000);
                        runOnUiThread(new Runnable() {
                            @Override
                            public void run() {
                                update();
                            }
                        });
                    }
                } catch (InterruptedException ignored) {}
            }
        };
        t.start();
        startService(new Intent(this, TestService.class));
    }
    private void update() {
        // update your interface here
        tv.setText(TestService.myString);
    }
}

Clyde's solution works, but it is a broadcast, which I am pretty sure will be less efficient than calling a method directly. I could be mistaken, but I think the broadcasts are meant more for inter-application communication.

I'm assuming you already know how to bind a service with an Activity. I do something sort of like the code below to handle this kind of problem:

class MyService extends Service {
    MyFragment mMyFragment = null;
    MyFragment mMyOtherFragment = null;

    private void networkLoop() {
        ...

        //received new data for list.
        if(myFragment != null)
            myFragment.updateList();
        }

        ...

        //received new data for textView
        if(myFragment !=null)
            myFragment.updateText();

        ...

        //received new data for textView
        if(myOtherFragment !=null)
            myOtherFragment.updateSomething();

        ...
    }
}


class MyFragment extends Fragment {

    public void onResume() {
        super.onResume()
        //Assuming your activity bound to your service
        getActivity().mMyService.mMyFragment=this;
    }

    public void onPause() {
        super.onPause()
        //Assuming your activity bound to your service
        getActivity().mMyService.mMyFragment=null;
    }

    public void updateList() {
        runOnUiThread(new Runnable() {
            public void run() {
                //Update the list.
            }
        });
    }

    public void updateText() {
       //as above
    }
}

class MyOtherFragment extends Fragment {
             public void onResume() {
        super.onResume()
        //Assuming your activity bound to your service
        getActivity().mMyService.mMyOtherFragment=this;
    }

    public void onPause() {
        super.onPause()
        //Assuming your activity bound to your service
        getActivity().mMyService.mMyOtherFragment=null;
    }

    public void updateSomething() {//etc... }
}

I left out bits for thread safety, which is essential. Make sure to use locks or something like that when checking and using or changing the fragment references on the service.

I would recommend checking out Otto, an EventBus tailored specifically to Android. Your Activity/UI can listen to events posted on the Bus from the Service, and decouple itself from the backend.